“And to some extent the Church in Britain is to blame for this – divided, defensive and dumbed down, it has created a ghetto mentality and a Christian market, with the result that any attempt to break out of that is met by defeatism at home, and derision abroad.“…This sadly sounds like the Church in our locale as well, perhaps in the forseeable future if we do not turn it around. A Christian side culture is necessarily on the margin, and it is a ghetto in terms of quality.

Richard Dawkins is reigniting his career as an atheist cacangelist. What you may ask is a cacangelist? Its a new word (I think) which should not be added to our dictionary. The word evangelist comes from the Greek – meaning the messenger of good news. I have often described Richard Dawkins as an atheist evangelist…but it doesn’t really work because atheism has no good news. So since the word ‘cac’ means bad (in English it has a similar more rough but equally appropriate meaning)…it seems to me that cacangelist (messenger of bad news) fits Dawkins and his like perfectly….there is no God, there is no good and evil in the universe, there is no purpose…and if you get cancer etc thats just your bad luck…You are a blob of carbon going from one meaningless existence to another.

Richard Dawkins is in the process of bringing out a childrens book seeking…

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If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. I John 1:9

Maybe you’re not like me, but when I hear this verse, I hear something like this: “If we confess our sins, he is willing to be really nice and overlook our sins because he’s God.”

But that’s not what is being said, is it?

What we normally experience in our human relationships, as offenders—once we are willing to admit to ourselves that we did wrong—is something like this: we gather up enough humility to admit to the offended person that we’ve wronged them, and we apologize, as though what we did isn’t like us at all, because we’re really better than this. Then the other person accepts our apology, maybe reluctantly. They decide to overlook our offense, or at least they say they do, and implicitly agree not to stay mad about it.

In other words, I hardly recognize I’ve done something offensive, I grudgingly admit that I may have if that’s what the offended person insists on thinking, then the offended person grudgingly decides to let it go, meaning he is going to act like he’s not offended anymore, even if he intends to nurse a secret grudge against me. This is what human forgiveness often looks like, God help us.

We ask forgiveness to put social discomfort behind us. We forgive in order to avoid confrontation and the awkward intimacy involved in sharing real emotions.

What I usually sense when I think about God’s forgiveness is that I’m getting away with something I really shouldn’t. But I just processed what the verse is really saying: God forgives our offenses because it is just to do so.

It is right that I should be forgiven. Justice is satisfied. How can that be?

If God forgives because it is just, then it is just. That means the absolutely righteous, fair and perfect response to our confession is to forgive us.

He forgives us because it is faithful and just to do so.

Faithful to what or to whom? Not to us; we do not deserve to be forgiven. We can offer nothing which erases the offense.

And God is not accountable to us.

Who can God be faithful to? Only to himself; He cannot be accountable to one greater than himself. He is being faithful to his own standard, and God is his standard. We human creatures can stand aside from a standard and honor or dishonor it, but God is in essence his standard. He is being faithful to himself. When he is being faithful and just, He is being Who He is.

He does not forgive us because He’s decided to overlook our sins because He’s in a good mood, nor because He’s decided to let this one go.

How is it just for God to forgive our sins? This is no tit-for-tat in which a god is bound to forgive us because we said the magic words. He owes us nothing, ever. And we cannot make amends for our offenses, ever. We cannot give God something by which he is obligated to forgive us.

If we are truly repentant in our hearts, to forgive us is just.

God is holy, pure and wholly good and we are decidedly not. But Jesus Christ, who was sinless, died in my place and yours to accept the penalty for our sin. He made us right with Holy God. Why does God do this?

God is love. God wants to dwell with his creatures who have freely chosen to love him, to recognize who He is and to honor Him accordingly. He desires to forgive offenses because that is part of what love is. Love seeks reconciliation. Love strives to create relationship with no barriers, no division, no walls. True and pure resolution is necessary for two people to live in real unity, in real relationship. Remember—God’s version of relationship does not accept grudges and this-is-who-I-am-put-up-with-it. God’s conception of relationship is the perfect marriage, the friend giving his life for his friend, utter self-giving for an enemy who does not recognize the sacrifice. God wants to be in true intimate relationship with his creatures who desire true intimate relationship with him.

God forgives the true repentant because it would be unjust not to. He forgives because his nature requires it, and because he delights to. A wall has come down. A beloved has chosen to come closer to the God who loves him. The created being can truly identify with his Creator, and the Creator rejoices at this.

One day all the universe will acknowledge God for Who He is, will be in right relationship with Him. Everything in the universe will be as God intended. That means all people and all Creation will honor Him as God.

And then he cleanses us from all unrighteousness! God requires us to be totally righteous in order to be in total relationship with us, so he makes it possible, because we cannot. In doing so he continues to be true to himself—faithful and just—to himself and to us.

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So many things to be said. But this is maybe the most important point.

Every nominee put forward by Trump, or any future Republican president, will receive exactly the same treatment because the opposition understands that they cannot, have not, and will not achieve their societal and institutional goals at the ballot box. They know that they must change society by fiat. And that has largely been done, and they hope, will be done, by activists SCOTUS justices.

Judge Kavanaugh could have been any other nominee and the tactics would have been identical. Leftists know that the American people are not in agreement with their radical un-American goals. So they must be ruled by their elite betters.

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This little book came about when I realized I had quite a few pieces of handmade paper which were no good for anything.

I had stacks of paper I had made at home with recycled papers and your basic handmade paper supply stuff, maybe cotton linters or half-stuff. There were also a few sheets of really nice paper from workshops or Open-Vat days at Rittenhouse Town which were too thick or nondescript for me to use for collage on my book covers. Some were glittered or oddly colored from vats in beginner papermaking workshops.

I had been looking for an idea for a quick little kind of book to offer to customers who want something low-cost and well, quickly handmade looking.

Suddenly there was my box of useless handmade paper. What if I simply folded it in half, inserted pages, and sewed it all up the spine?

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I am not unequal or unfree if I lose the right to kill my unborn children. I do not need the right to kill in order to be equal to men.

If I did need that right:

wouldn’t it mean that I am intrinsically not equal?

wouldn’t it mean I must become exactly like a man to be equal to men?

What if I value not being a killer of my own children over becoming equal to a man?

Shouldn’t I value that more?

I am a woman who has never killed my child. I am a woman who will never choose to kill my children. Yet I am equal to a man. God created women as equal to men; it is modern feminists who try to persuade us that we are lesser to men so that we will buy into their power struggle.

You may have heard that women are seen as lesser in the Bible but I challenge you to find that. In Scripture, men and women are different and complementary but equally free and equally valuable.

Without availing myself of the right to kill my offspring, I am, and have always been, as valuable and as free as any man.

If I were to perceive of myself as victim, or oppressed, or inhibited, or not free, because my right to kill the unborn may be infringed, I would live in a prison of my own making.

I do not need the right to kill my children in order to be equal or free. I am already equal and free.